Category: Money Politics

Top cities, top vectors of votes

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By Davinci S. Maru

CITIES ARE where all kinds of opportunities can be found – and, unsurprisingly, where a lot of voters in this country happen to be.

As of records from the 2013 elections, the top 50 vote-rich cities across the Philippines have as much as 13.9 million of the nation’s voters. That is about one fourth of the latest total number of registered voters (54.4 million), and a sizeable chunk that could give a crucial boost to the chances of any national candidate winning in the upcoming elections.

Yet another no-surprise is that 38 out of the 50 vote-rich cities are in Luzon, the biggest island group, while seven are in Mindanao and the remaining five in the Visayas.

Too, majority of the top 10 cities with the most number of registered voters are in migrant-magnet Metro Manila: Quezon City (first place at 1,083,915); City of Manila (third at 952,962), Caloocan City (fourth at 636,625); City of Makati (seventh at 399,726); City of Pasig (ninth at 354,542), and Taguig City (tenth at 325,498). Davao City (second at 967,944), Cebu City (fifth at 547,463), Zamboanga City (sixth at 405,601), and City of Antipolo (seventh at 391,688) make up the rest of the top 10.
2013 TOP 50

Some of the candidates for the country’s two highest posts have considerable ties to a few of these cities. For instance, Quezon City, under the leadership of Mayor Herbert Bautista, is a bailiwick of the Liberal Party (LP) administration coalition, which could give an edge to the tandem of Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II and Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo, LP candidates for president and vice president.

Presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban), meanwhile, remains to be a force to be reckoned with in Davao City where he has served as an elected official for more than two decades. (He is currently its mayor.)

Duterte’s running mate Alan Peter Cayetano, for his part, can probably count on significant support from Taguig City, where his wife Lani is the incumbent mayor. Cayetano, currently a senator, was once vice mayor of Taguig and also representative of the then lone district of Taguig and Pateros in Congress.

Of course, there is Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), whose family until recently controlled Makati City since 1986. Binay started his political career in Makati City when the late President Corazon Aquino appointed him as its officer-in-charge.

Binay’s wife Elenita and his son Jejomar Erwin or ‘Junjun’ had taken turns with him in occupying Makati’s mayoral post. Last year, the Office of the Ombudsman dismissed Junjun Binay as Makati Mayor for grave misconduct and dishonesty. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, the Vice President’s younger daughter who is now on her last term as Makati’s representative in Congress, is set to run for mayor. That will pit her against her brother’s successor, Romulo ‘Kid’ Pena Jr., of the LP.

Aside from Makati, though, Binay had been counting on votes from Cebu, where the party dominated by the Garcia political clan had struck an alliance with UNA. Recently, however, the One Cebu Party declared its ties with UNA as no longer in effect. Instead, the party said it would be supporting Duterte’s quest for the presidency.
2010 TOP 50 (1)

Interestingly, the Top 50 vote-rich cities are considered rich in terms of assets and equity.

Based on the 2014 Annual Financial Report of the Commission Audit (COA), Makati City the highest equity among them, at P34 billion.

Equity is the difference between the local government unit’s total assets and liabilities.

Makati is followed by Quezon City with P31 billion, the City of Pasig with P20 billion, the City of Manila with P13 billion, and Zamboanga City with P10 billion. At sixth place is Cebu City with P7 billion, then Caloocan City with P6 billion, Marikina City with P4 billion, Calamba City with P4 billion and Cagayan De Oro City with P4 billion.

Essentially, the cities included in the vote-rich roster have stayed the same since 2007, although there have been some changes in the ranking. This is while the number of registered voters has continued to increase through the years.

2007 TOP 50

In the 2007 elections, there were 12,234,144 registered voters from the top 50 vote-rich cities. This figure increased by 10.8 percent in 2010 during the first nationwide automated election, with 13,555,685 people in these 50 cities registered as voters. But while the number of registered voters in the 50 top vote-rich cities went up again in 2013, the rise was a modest 2.8 percent, translating into 13,937,902. — PCIJ, May 2016
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For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Kamag-anak, Inc.: Power is family to 5 wannabe president

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By the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

VOTERS KEEN in assessing the fitness for office of the five candidates for President in the upcoming elections may want to look at the presidentiables’ political pedigree and blood relations.

The five, after all, have occupied elective and appointive posts from a minimum of five to a maximum of 24 years. They spring, too, from political families with short to long histories, or slight to strong pedigree.

In many parts of the country, elective power and position typically beget appointive power and positions. In the case of the current crop of presidential candidates, are we electing only the persons whose names are on the ballot or members of their family as well?

By their own admission in their respective Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) across the years, in small and large measure, power is family to the top candidates in next month’s balloting.

The picture varies, though. Some have as few as two while others have as many as eight relatives in the government service.

Here’s a rundown of the political history and family ties in the government of the five presidentiables:


VICE PRESIDENT JEJOMAR ‘JOJO’ CABAUATAN BINAY had served as mayor of Makati City for nearly 20 years — from 1986 to 1996, and again, from 2001-2010.
JEJOMAR BINAY

During this period and in the intervening years, he had also worked as chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority; and director of the Light Railway Transit Authority (1987, 1996-1998); director of the Laguna Lake Development Authority (1987), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (1987, 1990, 1991).

In his younger years as a lawyer, Binay had been a law professor and lecturer at the Philippine College of Commerce; St. Catherine’s School of Nursing and Midwifery; Philippine Women’s University; and St. Scholastica’s College.

He was a senior partner of the Binay, Cueva and Associates Law Office and had earlier worked as assistant attorney at the Deogracias T. Reyes Law Office; legal counsel of Manila Councilor Carlos Loyzaga; and claims examiner, Insular Life Assurance Company.

He is married to Dr. Elenita Sombillo Binay, who was elected Mayor of Makati City from 1998 to 2001, or during the three years that Binay could not run for the post.

The Binays have five children:

* Sen. Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, who is married to Jose Benjamin Raymundo Angeles;
* Makati City 2nd District Rep. Mar-Len Abigail Binay, who is married to Luis Jose Angel Nakpil Campos;
* Suspended Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin ‘Junjun’ Binay Jr., who was married to the late Kennedy Ann L. Binay;
* Marita Angeline Binay, and
* Joanna Marie Bianca Binay.

In his latest SALN, for 2014, Jejomar Binay declared having four children in the government service, including three holding elective posts: son Junjun and daughters Abigail and Nancy. Marita Angeline, meanwhile, holds the appointive post of head executive assistant, with rank of Director IV, in the Office of the Vice President.

SENATOR MIRIAM DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO has served as a trial court presiding judge, then Immigration commissioner, and Agrarian Reform secretary. She has been senator since 1997. Her third term in the Upper House will end this June.
MIRIAM DEFENSOR SANTIAGO

In December 2011, she was the first Filipina and Asian to be elected to a nine-year tenure as judge of the International Criminal Court. But she later declined the post, citing as reason chronic fatigue, which eventually led to a diagnosis of lung cancer.

Santiago’s relatives provide her access to a network of politicians and bureaucrats. Her cousins, nephews, and a niece have served alternately as representatives of the third district of both Quezon City and Iloilo from the 12th to the 15th Congress (2001-2013). Her husband, lawyer Narciso Yap Santiago Jr., has also been appointed to various government offices.

Two of Santiago’s cousins and a sister have held key positions in the Bureau of Customs, the Commission on Audit, and the Commission on Higher Education.

In her SALN for 2014, Santiago said she has eight relatives in the government service.

The senator’s sister Nanalyn Defensor serves as her chief of staff, cousin Mary Grace Katigbak is Political Affairs Officer, and sister-in-law Chona Defensor is Director 1, at the Senate.

Her paternal first cousin Arthur Defensor Sr. is incumbent governor, and his son Arthur Jr. is the congressman of the third district of her home province of Iloilo.

Maternal cousin-in-law Estrellita Bito-onon Suansing is the congressman of the 1st District of Nueva Ecija.

Cousin-in-law Vivian Suansing is assistant director at the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

During the Arroyo administration, Santiago’s brother Benjamin P. Defensor Jr. was Air Force chief. Santiago’s husband Narciso Jr., meanwhile, was an undersecretary of the Interior and Local Government under both Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

The Santiagos had two sons Narciso III or “Archie” and Alexander Robert or “AR,” who died in a reported suicide in 2003.

On July 18, 2007, Senator Santiago herself swore into office son Archie as representative of the Alliance of Rural Concerns (ARC) party-list group, which won a seat in that year’s elections. This was even after ARC had withdrawn Archie’s nomination as its top nominee, for supposed “loss of confidence, dishonesty, unauthorized exercise of authority and gross violations of the group’s Constitution and by-laws.” ARC has focused its advocacy on the extension of the comprehensive agrarian reform program.

The Santiagos have adopted daughters, twins Megan and Molly.

RODRIGO “DIGONG’ ROA DUTERTE has dominated Davao City politics for nearly three decades now. He has served as its as mayor for two three-term cycles (1988-1998 and 2001-2010). He was its vice mayor from 2010—2013 and then mayor again from 2013 to the present.
RODRIGO DUTERTE

In 1998-2001, Duterte sat in Congress as representative of Davao City’s first district.

Duterte is separated from first wife Elizabeth Abellana Zimmerman, with whom he has three children: Paolo, Sebastian, and Sara Duterte-Carpio, who was Davao City mayor from 2010 to 2013. A fourth child, Veronica, was born to second wife, Honeylet Avancena, a nurse by profession.

Duterte has two siblings: brother Benjamin and sister Jocelyn.

In his SALN for 2014, Duterte listed six relatives in the government service. They include son Paolo who is Davao City vice mayor; brother Benjamin who is his “private secretary”; nephew Wilfrido Villarica, Administration Officer I of Davao City; daughter-in-law January Duterte, councilor/barangay captain of Catalunan Grande in Davao City; niece-in-law Jean Villarica, “auxiliary worker” of the CENRO (City Environment and Natural Resources Office); and co-parent-in-law Agnes Reyes-Carpio, a Court of Appeals Justice.

SENATOR MARY GRACE POE-LLAMANZARES has the shortest stint in public service among the presidentiables — as chairperson of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) from 2010 to 2012, and as senator since June 2013.

GRACE POE
Poe has spent longer years working in the private sector. In 1995, she worked as a preschool teacher at a Philippine “Montessori education-style school,” and in 1998, as procurement officer at the United States Geological Survey. In 2005, she was named vice president and treasurer of FPJ Productions, the company of her father, popular action movie star Fernando Poe Jr., who died in December 2004.

In her SALN for 2014, Poe declared having two relatives in the government: cousin Lawrence Cruz, a PAO (Public Affairs Officer) III at the Senate, and cousin-in-law Anna Camille Sevilla, a Director IV at the Senate.

MANUEL ‘MAR’ ARANETA ROXAS II has served three presidents — as Trade and Industry Secretary of Joseph Estrada (1998-2000) and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (2001-2003), and as Secretary of Transportation and Communication (2011-2012) and Interior and Local Government Secretary of Benigno S. Aquino III (2012-October 2015).

MAR ROXAS
In the 2004 elections, Mar Roxas emerged No. 1 among the senatorial candidates, garnering 19 million votes. He ran as Aquino’s running mate in 2010, but lost to Jejomar Binay.

The eldest son of the late Senate president Gerardo Manuel de Leon Roxas and Judith Araneta Roxas, Roxas entered politics only in 1993, after the death of his younger brother Gerardo Jr. or ‘Dinggoy,’ then Representative of the 1st District of Capiz. Roxas also has a sister, Maria Lourdes Roxas Ojeda.

He is now married to television anchor Korina Sanchez. He has a son, Paolo Gerardo Z. Roxas, by a former girlfriend, 1971 Miss Young International Philippines Maricar Zaldarriaga.

Mar Roxas is the grandson of Manuel Roxas, who had served as the third and last president of the Philippine Commonwealth Republic from May 28, 1946 to July 4, 1946 as a Nacionalista Party member, and as the first president of the Third Republic from July 4, 1946 to April 15, 1948 as a Liberal Party member.

On his mother’s side, Mar Roxas is the grandson of J. Amado Araneta and nephew of Jorge Araneta, and Maria Lourdes Araneta.

J. Amado Araneta and Jorge Araneta have donated significant sums to Mar Roxas’s campaigns in elections past and present.

In his SALN for 2014, Roxas declared having an uncle, a cousin, and a niece in the government service.

President Aquino appointed Roxas’s uncle Valentin Araneta as member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2014, a post that has a fixed six-year term. Earlier, Araneta had been president of the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation.

A first cousin of Mar Roxas, Maria Margarita Fores, meanwhile, was elected in January 2014 as one of the nine new Governors of the Philippine Red Cross, which receives some donations from the government but is not a state agency. Nevertheless, Roxas listed her among his relatives in the government service. Fores, who owns and runs the CIBO chain of restaurants and a culinary school, has become the caterer of choice of several Philippine presidents for big receptions at Malacanang Palace.

Roxas also has a niece, Pia Jane Trillanes, working as a Field Operator at the Department of Social Welfare and Development. DSWD is headed by Secretary Corazon ‘Dinky’ Soliman, a stalwart of the administration Liberal Party, which remains largely a veritable Roxas family heirloom. — PCIJ, April 2016
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For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online

Votes by the pint: 17 provinces vote poor since 2004 elections

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By Vino Lucero

IN A tightly contested election, every vote matters, and even a vote-poor province could mean success or defeat for a national candidate.

But that momentary attention may not mean a boost to the province’s revenues after the polls. In fact, among the consistent placers in the list of 20 provinces with the least number of registered voters from 2004 to 2016, only one has been classified as second-class in terms of income. The rest ranked third-class and below.

First-class provinces have an average annual income of more than P450 million, while provinces in the second-class cluster earn P360 million or more but less than P450 million.

Third-class provinces have an income average of P270 million or more but less than P360 million; fourth- class with P180 million or more but less than P270 million; fifth-class with P90 million or more but less than P180 million; and sixth-class with less than P90 million.

PCIJ curated the Commission on Elections’ voter-statistics data to come up with a list of 20 provinces with the least number of registered voters from 2004 to 2016.

Seventeen were consistently on the list: Batanes, Siquijor, Camiguin, Guimaras, Quirino, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Biliran, Aurora, Kalinga, Marinduque, Tawi-Tawi, Catanduanes, Abra, Romblon, Basilan, and Nueva Vizcaya.

Of these, three provinces were fifth-class in income: Batanes, Camiguin, and Siquijor.

Four – Mountain Province, Guimaras, Biliran, and Marinduque – apparently made just enough to make it to fourth-class level.

The rest were classified under the third income class, except for Nueva Vizcaya, which was considered second-class in the 2015 listing of Bureau of Local Government Finance.

Unsurprisingly, Batanes has been on top of the list of provinces with the least number of registered voters since 2004. During that year, it had only around 8,800.

Batanes finally crossed the 10,000-mark in total number of registered voters only in 2010. Today it has around 11,000.

For the upcoming elections, 12 provinces in the vote-poor roster are from Luzon (Batanes, Apayao, Quirino, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Aurora, Kalinga, Marinduque, Catanduanes, Abra, Romblon, and Nueva Vizcaya); three are from the Visayas (Siquijor, Guimaras, and Biliran), and five are from Mindanao (Camiguin, Dinagat Islands, Tawi-Tawi, Davao Occidental, and Basilan).

The list has had more provinces from Luzon through the years. In 2004, 13 of the provinces in the vote-poor tally were also from Luzon (Batanes, Apayao, Quirino, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Aurora, Kalinga, Marinduque, Catanduanes, Abra, Romblon, Occidental Mindoro, and Nueva Vizcaya), while four were from the Visayas (Siquijor, Guimaras, Biliran, and Southern Leyte), and three from Mindanao (Camiguin, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan).

Little movement can be seen in the roster, with even the same provinces appearing on it in 2007 and 2010.

In 2007, though, Dinagat Islands debuted on the list at fifth place, edging out Southern Leyte. But then Dinagat was declared a province only in 2006, by virtue of Republic Act No. 9355.

Camiguin also jumped from fourth place during the previous election to second place in 2007.

Apayao, meanwhile, has consistently made it to the magic five except in 2013 due to unavailability of data for the province in that election year. With the absence of Apayao on the list, Sulu managed to snatch the last spot on the bottom 20 in 2013.

Occidental Mindoro, Davao Occidental, and Southern Leyte have also been part of the list in non-consecutive instances. — PCIJ, April 2016

For more details, check out PCIJ’s Money Politics Online.

2004 Bottom 20 2007 Bottom 20 2010 Bottom 20 2013 Bottom 20 2016 Bottom 20

Buckets of votes: 20 provinces on top list since 2004 elections

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By Vino Lucero

IN ORDER TO WIN ELECTIONS, national candidates need to court and earn votes in bulk.

A candidate can do so by asking for endorsement from formation leaders and sectoral representatives, and even from celebrities and matinee idols.

Or he or she can opt to do a more personal approach and hie off to vote-rich provinces, shake hands, talk to massive local audiences, and rally the voters to shade that oval before his or her name on the ballot.

PCIJ curated Commission on Elections voter statistics data from 2004 to 2016, and created a list of the top 20 provinces in terms of registered voters per election year during that period.

From 2004 to 2016, the same 18 have been consistently on the list: Cebu, Cavite, Negros Occidental, Bulacan, Pangasinan, Laguna, Davao del Sur, Iloilo, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Leyte, Zamboanga del Sur, Quezon, Camarines Sur, Isabela, and Misamis Oriental.

Cebu has also consistently held the top spot since 2004. Cavite, meanwhile, rose from fifth in 2004 to fourth in 2007, and then landed on the second rung in 2010. It has been there since. Leyte (13th), Isabela (17th), and Misamis Oriental (18th) also maintained their ranking from 2004 up to the present.

Cebu’s voter population increased by almost half a million in less than a decade – from 2,020,606 in 2004 to 2,508,189 in 2013 – ensuring its continuous reign in the vote-rich listing. Cavite voters also increased in huge margins, from 1,323,653 in 2004 to almost 1.8 million in 2013.

Interestingly, the same provinces have tightly contested the last two slots in the top 20 list through the years: South Cotabato (19th most vote-rich province in 2004, 20th in 2010); Bohol (20th in 2004 and 19th in 2007, 2013, and 2016); Negros Oriental (20th in 2007, 2013, and 2016); and Bukidnon (19th in 2010).

All the names ranked in the top 20 since 2004 have first-class income classification, according to the 2015 listing of the Bureau of Local Government Finance.

Provinces recorded with first-class income get an average annual income of P450 million or more from “own-sourced revenue efforts,” according to Department of Finance’s Order No. 23-08.

Yet while Cebu has been Number One on the list since 2004, more than half of the top 20 vote-rich provinces have been from Luzon in the past 12 years.

The 2016 vote-rich roster, for instance, has 11 provinces from Luzon (Cavite, Pangasinan, Laguna, Bulacan, Batangas, Rizal, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Isabela), six from the Visayas (Cebu, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Leyte, Bohol, and Negros Oriental), and three from Mindanao (Davao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, and Misamis Oriental).

In 2004, 11 of the top 20 vote-rich provinces were also from Luzon (Bulacan, Pangasinan, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Quezon, Camarines Sur, and Isabela), while five were from the Visayas (Cebu, Negros Occidental, Iloilo, Leyte, and Bohol), and four from Mindanao (Davao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, Misamis Oriental, and South Cotabato).

Indeed, while Cebu and Negros Occidental managed to keep the top two seats on the list in 2007, Luzon provinces still dominated the roster. The provinces included in the 2004 Top 20 vote-rich also made a reappearance in 2007, with the exception of South Cotabato. Negros Oriental snatched the vacated spot, which was the bottom of the list.

By 2010, Negros Occidental had slipped from second to fourth in the vote-rich provinces roster, and Cavite had emerged in second place. Bohol was dropped from the top 20, Bukidnon got the 19th spot, and South Cotabato re-entered to get the last seat on the list. – PCIJ, April 2016

2004 Top 20

2007 Top 20

2010 Top 20

2013 Top 20

2016 Top 20

Top bets for prez, VP, senator spend P54M daily on pol ads

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By Floreen Simon and Malou Mangahas

EVEN WITH just part of their campaign spending captured by Nielsen Media’s monitoring of their political ads from Feb. 9 to the end of March, at least two presidential and two senatorial candidates have already breached half of the cap set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Interestingly, too, many candidates for national posts apparently went on a campaign-spending frenzy immediately before the Comelec meter began ticking, resulting in nearly P800 million worth of ad placements within a mere eight days.

By all indications, the unbridled spending spree on political ads alone by the national candidates is turning the next fortnight’s balloting into the costliest yet in Philippine electoral history.

The official 90-day campaign period for national candidates began on Feb. 9. The campaign-spending limits set by Comelec — P10 per registered voter for presidential and vice presidential posts; P5 per registered voter for independent senatorial candidates, as well as for political parties and party-list organizations; and P3 per registered voter for Senate bets from political parties — are in effect only during this period.

Comelec records show that as of last Jan. 7, the country has a total of 54,363,844 registered voters. This means that for the May 9 polls, the campaign-spending limit for presidential and vice presidential aspirants is P543,638,440 per candidate; P271,819,220 for independent senatorial candidates, political parties, and party-list organizations; and P163,091,532 for senatorial candidates fielded by political parties.

PCIJ has subscribed to Nielsen Media’s monitoring reports on campaign spending. Nielsen’s latest report covered the first 50 days of the official campaign and is based on the published rate cards for TV, radio, print, and outdoor ad placements.

Daily average: P54M

The “air war” typically accounts for up to 80 percent of the bill that national candidates must cover. But campaign spending also includes multiple collaterals for the “ground war,” such as the production of the candidates’ ad materials; the conduct of public rallies; campaign t-shirts and giveaways; communication, transportation, and meals for sorties; rental and equipment for campaign headquarters; printing of sample ballots; and compensation for counsel, media agents, campaign staff, and poll watchers.

Yet even with just the ad placements monitored by Nielsen, the candidates running for president, vice president, and the Senate, along with their political parties, had already spent some P2.7 billion from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, 2016 alone.

That comes up to an average of P54 million in ad spend every day, or P2.25 million in ad spend every hour, by the candidates to national posts, in the first 50 days of the 90-day campaign period. The daily ad spend of these candidates could yield 52.94 centavos in daily cash bonanza for every Filipino, if distributed among the nation’s population of 102 million.

Yet that’s not the only ad spending that has been happening. Last month, PCIJ reported that according to Nielsen Media’s monitoring, most of the same candidates had spent about P6.7 billion in pre-campaign ads that featured them as “advertiser” or “product” in about 105,00 ad spots on TV, radio, and print media, from March 2015 to Jan. 31, 2016. Adding the P800 million in additional ad spend from last Feb. 1 to 8, the pre-campaign ad spend by these candidates amount to P7.5 billion in all.

Altogether, ad placements by national candidates in the upcoming elections, as captured by Nielsen, have now reached P10.2 billion in value.

Campaign finance laws allow the candidates to secure discounts on the published rate cards of media agencies according to this schedule: 30 percent for TV ads, 20 percent for radio ads, and 10 percent for print ads.

But the poor and slow submission to Comelec by most media agencies of their advertising contracts with the candidates prevent as yet any comparison of Nielsen’s rate card values with the net cost that the candidates had paid for their ads. The law requires media agencies to submit to the poll body advertising contracts, media purchase orders, booking orders, and receipts within five days after their signing.

In the May 2010 elections, the discounted ad spending of the top candidates for president, vice president, and party-list groups all together amounted to P4.3 billion, throughout the entire 90-day campaign period.

In the May 2013 midterm elections, the 33 candidates for senator as a group reported to the Comelec advertising expenses, by contract cost, of only P2.05 billion, throughout the entire 90-day campaign period.

More than half

This time around, the Nielsen report data reveal, among other things, Vice President Jejomar ‘Jojo’ Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) as the current frontrunner among the presidentiables in terms of his campaign-ad placements beginning Feb. 9, the value of which had reached nearly P345 million by end-March.

Senator Grace Poe (Independent), who placed campaign ads worth a total of P331.4 million during the same period, came in second.

By the end of last month, thus, both Binay and Poe had managed to breach half the official spending limit for presidential bets based on Nielsen data alone, with Binay at 63.44 percent and Poe at 60.97 percent.

By comparison, the administration’s candidate, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II of the Liberal Party (LP), incurred P157.8 million on ad placements from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, apart from the P54.3 million in tandem ads for him and his running mate, Camarines Sur 3rd District Rep. Maria Leonor ‘Leni’ Robredo, paid for by the LP. Roxas’s personal ad spend is P200 million less than what Poe forked out. The amount made Roxas the third biggest spender on campaign-ad placements among the presidentiables, but had him spending only 36.81 percent of the allowed sum.

Robredo, though, is now first among the vice presidential candidates in terms of ad-placement expenditures. From Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, Robredo had a total ad-placement bill of P237.2 million, including tandem ads with Roxas that were paid for by LP. Robredo’s ad bill is equivalent to 43.63 percent of the allowed amount.

UNA did not spend a centavo on tandem ads for Binay and his running mate Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan II in the first 50 days of the campaign period. In contrast, Roxas and Robredo were boosted by the LP’s spending of P54.3 million more on ads that featured President Benigno S. Aquino III endorsing their tandem.

Poe’s political partner Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, meanwhile, spent about P1 million less than Robredo or P236.2 million. Escudero is the No. 2 highest spender among the vice presidentiables. Running a far third in terms of ad-placement spending is Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who nevertheless spent a substantial P172.4 million.

Cayetano’s presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of PDP-Laban, logged a total ad spend of P110.36 million during the period. The duo’s respective advertising bills include 50 percent of the cost of the ads that featured them in tandem, which Cayetano and an unidentified party paid for.

Then there are the ads featuring yet another candidate for president, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, which cost the People’s Reform Party P59.14 million. Recorded by Nielsen as having aired from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31, the ads do not have Defensor’s name as payor.

Senate bets

Among the senatorial candidates, former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino is first place in terms of ad-placement spend from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31. But because he is running as an independent, his ad bill of P135 million is still under 50 percent of the allowed amount.

At least three other candidates for senator, however, have already breached the cap’s halfway point: Senator Franklin Drilon of the LP (almost P94 million, 57.01 percent) and Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin ‘Win’ Gatchalian of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (P84.4 million, 51.76 percent), and former Senator Richard Gordon (P83.4 million, 51.75 percent).

His ad placements were paid for by Bagumbayan Volunteers for a New Philippines. Gordon is also a guest candidate of the Poe-Escudero tandem.

Close to the halfway mark as well are Senator Ralph Recto and former Senator Francis Pangilinan, both from LP. Recto with P77.4 million in ad placements is now at 47.44 percent of the cap and Pangilinan with P75 million is at 45.98 percent. Catching up is Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez, whose ad placements of P72.4 million — including those paid by Lakas CMD party – have him at 44.39 percent of the limit.

Last big binge

Romualdez, however, seems to have indulged in a last-minute binge in the week immediately before the start of the official campaign spending period. For sure, he was not the only candidate to do so. But Romualdez seems to have outdone nearly everyone, including those running for the country’s top two posts.

From Feb. 1-8, Romualdez placed TV, radio, print, and outdoor ads to the tune of P120.7 million – even more than presidential candidate Binay, who wound up with an ad-placement bill of P115.7 million during the same period. Romualdez’s pre-campaign spree is also double that of Poe’s P58 million and nearly triple of Duterte’s P37.5 million. Indeed, Romualdez was bested only by another presidential contender, Roxas, who spent P136.3 million in those eight days in February.

Other senatoriables who spent considerable sums between Feb. 1 and 8 include Recto and former Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) chief Joel Villanueva. Recto and Villanueva — who is also part of the administration’s senatorial lineup — each spent some P47 million to place ads during that period, or an average of close to P6 million per day.

There are also senatorial candidates like former Senator Panfilo Lacson and Gatchalian who right before the official campaign period began spent less than Recto and Villanueva, but more than all those vying for the vice-presidential seat.

Lacson, who is a guest on the LP senatorial slate, spent some P36 million and Gatchalian, P34.6 million. Contrast those against Robredo, the top spender among the vice-presidential candidates, who chalked up a total of P29.67 million in ad-placement buys during February’s first eight days, or against Cayetano, who ran up a total of P14 million.

The rest of the candidates for vice president also placed ads during the same period, but with more modest totals. Escudero’s ad placements from Feb. 1 to 8, for instance, had a sum of P2.65 million while those of Honasan (tandem ads with Binay) was at P2.37 million. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had P611,000 worth of ad placements and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, another independent candidate, had P400,000. (Marcos, like fellow vice presidential wannabe Cayetano, is a member of the Nacionalista Party.)

LP bets beat meter

At least seven senatorial candidates also beat Escudero, Honasan, Marcos, and Trillanes in ad-placement spending right before the limits on campaign spending came in effect. From Feb. 1 to 8, former Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla placed ads that had him footing a bill of P15 million while former Pampanga Governor Mark Lapid had ad placements worth P14.13 million. Both Petilla and Lapid are part of the administration’s senatorial slate.

Gordon, for his part, had a total of P5.88 million and Manila Vice Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domogoso, P5.16 million. Former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima had P4.35 million and former Senator Juan Miguel ‘Migz’ Zubiri, P3.3 million.

The lesser known LP candidates for senator — Cresente Paez, COOP NATCCO party-list representative, and Nariman Ambolodto, assistant secretary of Muslim affairs and special concerns of the Department of the Interior and Local Government — have not shown up at all in Nielsen’s ad-spending reports. Not a single centavo of ads paid by them or the LP appear in Nielsen’s reports for both the pre-campaign and the campaign periods.

The ad-placement spending of 18 senatorial candidates captured by Nielsen’s monitoring from Feb. 1 to 8 amounts to P339.4 million in all. This represents some 42 percent of the close to P800 million spent by national candidates and political parties to place ads immediately before Comelec began taking note of how much they were spending. It also reflects the fierce competition among the many senatorial candidates over the 12 slots available in the Upper House.

Paling in comparison is the total amount spent by the five aspirants to the vice presidency during the same period: P47.48 million, of which only a sliver came from Marcos, who has been the surprising perennial lead in surveys by different groups in the last few months. Defensor-Santiago’s running mate — the only son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos — would also spend much less than his rivals on ad placements from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31: P42.84 million or a mere six percent of the total ad spend of the five vice presidential candidates during that period.

Current presidential survey frontrunner Duterte has even less of a share in the total ad spend of the five contenders to the country’s highest post from Feb. 1 to 8: one percent. He would also remain fourth among the presidentiables (including one Apolonio Comia Soguilon, replacement candidate for the late Roy Seneres) in terms of ad spending from Feb. 9 to Mar. 31.

Including half of tandem ad placements with Cayetano, Duterte’s P110.36-million spend for that period comes to only 10.55 percent of the total P1.04 billion poured by the presidentiables into ads in a span of 7.5 weeks.

Upticks & negatives

Both Marcos and Duterte, however, made quantum leaps in their respective ad-placement spends from last February to March. Like most of the other candidates for president and vice president, both men acquired more ads in March. Unlike the others, however, Marcos and Duterte both spent relatively little in February.

Marcos spent P362,200 from Feb. 9 to 29; from Mar. 1 to 31, though, he accumulated an ad-placement spend of P42.48 million or a rise of 11,628 percent. Similarly, Duterte spent only P144,000 from Feb. 9 to 29. The following month, however, his ad-placement spend reached P110.22 million, or an increase of 76,416 percent.

Curiously, the Nielsen reports include negative ads run against two candidates in particular: Binay and Marcos.

According to Nielsen data, anti-Binay ads continued to run on TV in the week before the start of the official campaign period, with their placements in ABS-CBN and GMA-7 having a total value of P25 million. All were supposedly paid for by the Makati City-based A.B. Ison Pilot Construction and Trading Corp., which had also placed similar ads on TV in January that amounted to P8,835,162. This is despite a ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that bars private corporations from donating money to political candidates or to any partisan political activity. In all, A.B. Ison’s ad placements against Binay reached P33.83 million.

As for the anti-Marcos ads, the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang or CARMMA placed them between Feb. 9 and 29. Compared to the anti-Binay ads, however, their total value is rather measly: P334,278. — PCIJ, April 2016

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For more details, check out PCIJ and PCIJ’s Money Politics Online.